It's what I've been saying all along. Now there is analysis to back it up. "Customer spending on a website can be cut in half by a spelling mistake," says an online business analyst in the UK. This from a BBC News story about how such mistakes on a company's website can destroy its credibility:
Mr Duncombe says that it is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales.
He says he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected.
"If you project this across the whole of internet retail, then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes," says Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group.
Spelling is important to the credibility of a website, he says. When there are underlying concerns about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is essential.
Why Stop at Spelling Errors?
I'd add incorrect punctuation, subject and verb disagreement, dangling modifiers, and grammatical errors to the list of online offenders.
Maybe when businesses see the financial benefits of well-written and -edited copy on their websites, they'll start hiring quality writers, editors, and proofreaders. And maybe then what we do will be considered more than "just copy."
A Note to BBC News
Dear BBC News, there is a punctuation error in your article. "Millions of pounds worth" should be "millions of pounds' worth."
But hey, your credibility is safe with me.
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